The Reminiscences of Sir Walter Stanford
Volume I: 1850–1885
Volume II: 1885–1929
Sir Walter Stanford het vir baie jare in die Departement Naturellesake van die Kaapkolonie gedien. Na sy aftrede in 1907 begin hy sy memoires skryf. Die eerste volume beskryf sy jeug, onderrig by Lovedale College, sy werk in die Departement Naturellesake in die 1870’s en sluit af met die Kaapse Naturellewette en Doeane kommissie in 1881–3.
Alice Stanford (née Walker) en Walter Stanford ten tye van hul troue
Walter Ernest Mortimer Stanford was ‘n afstammeling van die 1820 Setlaars aan beide sy ma en pa se kant. Hy is op 2 Augustus 1850 in Alice in die Oos-Kaap gebore. Toe hy ses jaar oud was, is sy pa in ‘n perdry ongeluk oorlede en moes sy ma ses kinders alleen grootmaak. Walter is gestuur om by sy oom, ‘n sendeling in beheer van die Glen Grey sendingstasie in die Queenstown distrik, te bly. Hier het hy onderrig van sy tante ontvang. Na drie jaar keer hy terug na sy ma in Alice en spandeer twee jaar by die Lovedale Missionary Institution. Sy formele opvoeding eindig dus voor sy twaalfde verjaarsdag.
Die Kaapse “Native Laws and Customs Commission” – Stanford is aan die ver linkerkant.
Na sy aftrede het hy sy lewens- en werksherinneringe begin neerskryf. Hy het gedeeltelik staatgemaak op sy geheue maar grotendeels op geskrewe rekords. Van 1876 tot 1933, tot drie maande voor sy afsterwe, het hy ‘n dagboek bygehou waarin hy byna daaglikse inskrywings gemaak het. Die dagboeke bestaan uit nie minder as twee-en-sewentig volumes. Ten spyte van verskeie onderbrekings is sy Reminiscences, wat nou in twee volumes gepubliseer word, in 1929 voltooi.
Die eerste volume (VRS vol I-39 van 1958) dek die tydperk vanaf sy geboorte in 1850 tot 1885, net voor hy aangestel is as die hooflanddros van Griekwaland-Oos. Die tweede volume (VRS vol I-43 van 1962) dek die tydperk van 1885 tot die uitbreek van die Eerste Wêreldoorlog, toe sy opgetekende herinneringe feitlik ophou.
Walter Stanford as ‘n jong man
Op 1 Julie 1863, net voor sy dertiende verjaardag, word hy ‘n klerk onder sy oom by Glen Grey, wat in daardie stadium aangestel is as ‘n regeringsagent vir die “Tambookie”, die naam wat vir die abaThembu-mense gebruik is. Walter Stanford betree dus die diens van die Departement Naturellesake. Hier is hy vir die volgende vyf-en-veertig jaar werksaam en het hy ‘n diepgaande invloed op die ontwikkeling van Suid-Afrika gehad.
‘n Skets wat die grense tussen Griekwaland, Pondoland en Natal aanwys
‘n Sketskaart van die grensgebied ter illustrasie van Stanford se Reminiscences
UITTREKSEL UIT DIE TEKS
[….] warnings of intended treachery reached the magistrates but the meeting passed over without any overt act. The conduct of Makwaai’s men however was such that Mr. Brownlee was satisfied of their intention to rebel.
Following on the meeting traders were warned to leave the district. In doing so they were not personally molested but their stores were looted. On the evening of the 3rd October Ramhlagwana warned Mr. Brownlee that an attack on Mooiterie’s Kop had been arranged for that night. Ramhlagwana’s son Stampi and his brother Umsi were in the plot. On this information Mr. Brownlee and the officers with him put up defences and this becoming known the attack was deferred. On the morning of the 4th it was decided that Mr. Brownlee and party should return to Kokstad and Liefeldt [with] his clerk Austin fall back on the Fingo locations southward where later he successfully organised a defensive force. Ramhlagwana and his brother Sili with fifty armed men met the chief magistrate as he approached the border of his location.
The hostile Basuto, some four hundred strong, who were threatening a flank attack from the right, fell back on observing this movement. For about five miles Ramhlagwana kept with Mr. Brownlee and then turned homeward. The Umizimvubu drift was not far off when some mounted Basuto galloped forward to intercept the chief magistrate. These were checked and at the river a force of thirty Europeans and one hundred natives thoughtfully sent forward from Kokstad by Mr. J. T. Wylde, then Magistrate of the Mount Currie district, was found.
A laager had been formed by farmers from the neighbourhood near this drift and, leaving Commandant Strachan in control, Mr. Brownlee proceeded to Kokstad and energetically entered upon the task of organising such forces as were available to meet the emergency.
For an hour after Mr. Brownlee’s departure from Mooiterie’s Kop Liefeldt and Austin waited there with sixty loyal Fingos of the Hlubi tribe. The treacherous petty chief Umsi with about forty Basuto were also there. After the interval mentioned Liefeldt dashed out on horseback with Austin and got through to the location of the chief Ludidi and other Fingo headmen on the Kenigha River. The people there were in a state of panic, but the presence of their magistrate restored confidence and [they] faced the Basuto, who were already devastating the country around. The sixty Fingos who were at Mooiterie’s Kop belonged to three locations. They were suffered to depart with their arms by the Basuto headman, Sekaki, but were afterwards attacked and lost eleven men in cutting their way through the Basuto.
Umhlonhlo now came forward as the friend of the Government. He sent a congratulatory message to Mr. Brownlee and expressed readiness to take the field with his men under [the] command of the magistrate. Umhlonhlo’s loyalty in this critical time would have been very valuable to the country and it was even suggested that his well-known influence with the Bathlokoa chief, Lindingwana, might be used to detach that chief from the rebel Basuto with whom he was rightly suspected of being in sympathy.
It was not without grave misgivings that the experienced Chief Magistrate accepted the offer of Umhlonhlo made through his magistrate. But Hope was confident and the issues at stake were very important. So, accompanied by Umhlonhlo, Hope attended a preliminary meeting at Hlankomo (Chevy Chase) and then proceeded to Maclear. Here he met the magistrates of Maclear and Tsolo, Thomson and Welsh. Umhlonhlo and Lindingwana played their parts with consummate skill. ‘They were children of the Government.’ In reality Lindingwana was pressing Umhlonhlo to begin operations then and there by the murder of the three magistrates. In fact they had the magistrates at their mercy. Umhlonhlo refused. He had been promised arms and ammunition for his men, and until these were secured he would not move. Thus the meeting broke up with protestations of friendship and loyalty from these two chiefs.
Hope and Welsh returned to their respective magistracies. Meanwhile the Chief Magistrate had rapidly got forces together and, with these, Commandant Strachan attacked Makwaai, Sekaki and other Basuto leaders driving them and their adherents [….]
Editor
Born in Scotland, Mr Macquarrie has been an educator in South Africa for almost thirty-six years, beginning as a teacher, serving as a principal, and then becoming an inspector under the Cape Education Department, where he supervised European, Coloured, and African schools. When the Bantu Education Act was passed in 1953, Mr. Macquarrie, was transferred to the education section of the Native Affairs Department. Because he opposed both the principles of the act and the methods of its application, he resigned as an inspector and became senior lecurer in the Faculty of Education, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. He has written prolifically on education and social problems and is well known for forthright views on race and education.